Understanding Understanding Assessment in Primary Assessment in Primary

SchoolSchool

Reason for Assessment EveningDirect response to parent survey.

Purpose of Assessment Evening1. Help parents understand what assessments their childrenwill take in Primary School and why.

2.To help parents understand what the assessments are forand what the results mean.

Assessment plays a key role in helping schools to improve outcomes.

Knowing how each pupil is performing allows teachers to help individuals improve.

This in turn promotes improvement at class level, then at school level, allowing the school to set meaningful and challenging targets in its School Development Plan.

Why Assess?

Types

of Assessment

Diagnostic AssessmentFinding out strengths to celebrate and weaknesses to be worked on for the whole class or individuals over the year

Formative AssessmentTeacher highlighting and explaining problems as go along and children assessing themselves. Also known as ‘Assessment for Learning’

Observational AssessmentFoundation stage teachers closely observing children in learning activities and identifying strengths and areas for development.

Summative AssessmentEnd of year tests summing up achievement over a whole year.

Diagnostic Assessment

Diagnostic AssessmentIt is finding out the: Strengths Areas for Development

Computer Based Assessments

Early in Year Sept/Oct

LITERACY / NUMERACY

Strengths and areas for development identified.

Shared with parents at 1st Parent Interview

Replacing INCAS

Sept 2012

Formative/Observational Assessment

Often called formative assessment

Takes place during the learning

Makes pupils active participants in their learning and focuses on next steps in learning

Feeds forward to manage improvements

Fosters responsibility for & ownership of learning

Establishes where they are, where they need to go and how to get there

Assessment for Learning

It involves teachers teaching pupils: what they are about to learn and why; how to be successful at attaining the new learning; how to understand quality criteria and use them to

self-assess – a vital life skill; and how to ask, as well as answer, better questions to

deepen their own learning.

AfL in the Classroom

Teacher Outcomes More focused on pupils’ learning More concerned with the learning than activity

or performance More reflective about own practice Greater control passed to pupils Changed relationship between teacher and pupil

Research Evidenced Impacts

Pupil Outcomes Raised self-esteem and increased confidence Greater resilience Improved tenacity and perseverance Acquired vocabulary for learning Changed relationship between teacher and pupil Improvements in performance, motivation,

engagement, attainment and independence

Research Evidenced Impacts

Summative Assessment

Assessment of Learning

Often called summative assessment

Takes place after the learning

Focuses on pupils’ achievements

Is used to provide feedback to parents based on performance evidence

Many aspects of human performance occur predictably like this eg. running race, shoe size, height

What does the bell curve mean?

Bell Curve: An Explanation.

"Bell Curve" is the popular name for Normal Distribution. It is often called the bell curve because the graph of its probability density resembles a bell.

It can be used to measure anything

If you map certain things out, you will find that most people fall within a certain range. Let's say you were looking at number of hours of tv watched per week. The greatest percentage of people will probably fall within a similar range (say, 15-20 hours weekly) the further out you get from the norm (say 1 or 50 hours weekly) the fewer people will fall into that category.

Normal bell curve distribution

Standardisation

Standardised scores are measured by the pupil’s raw score and their chronological age

Standardisation allows pupils to be compared to other pupils of the same age throughout the United Kingdom

Different tests can also be compared to one another

Standardisation

Standardised scores from most educational tests cover the same range from 70 to 140. Hence a pupil's standing in, say, mathematics and English can be compared directly using standardised scores.

Standard deviation

Tells you how much better or worse than the mean/average score a pupil has scored

Summary of Annual Assessment at

Ballycarrickmaddy

Term 1

PARENT

INTERVIEW

Term 2

PARENT

INTERVIEW

Term 3 ANNUAL

PUPIL

REPORT

KS1

P1 Observations Observations Observations

P2 Observations Observations SUMMATIVE

ASSESSMENT

P3 FORMATIVEASSESSMENT

FORMATIVE

ASSESSMENT

P4 DIAGNOSTIC

ASSESSMENT

KS1 Assessment

KS2

P5

P6

P7

KS2

Assessment

Reporting to Parents based on assessment

Annual Pupil ReportFormal communication with parents to summarise strengths and areas for development for each pupil.

CCEA

A – A pupil working below the expected level but has made the normal expected progress.

B- A Statemented child who has above the expectedability and has learnt to deal with formal assessment.

C- A pupil above the expected level who has underperformed in 2 tests. Not 2 years.

D – A pupil working above the expected level who as made the normal expected progress.

Maths Standardised Scores Y4-7

69

7989

99

109

119129

139

1 2 3 4 5

Year

Sta

nd

ard

ise

d S

co

re

Pupil A

Pupil B

Pupil C

Pupil D

End of Keystage Reporting

Parent of pupil’s in P4 & P7 receive assessment levels.

NEW LEVELS STARTING 2012/12Communication (Literacy)Using MathematicsUsing I.C.T.

3

Ks1

1 2

Ks 2

12 34

5

Expected Ks 1 – level 2

Expected Ks 2 – level 4

Expected Ks 3 – level 5

Using ICT

Using Mathematics

Using Communication(literacy)

The Assessment Balancing Act

All types of assessment are important.

The Northern Ireland Curriculum seeks a better balance between them.

Final Point

“Assessment is not meant to be used as a measure of your child’s ability at school but as a means to improve their ability to learn; their knowledge and their skills.

Much of what is learnt is never fully assessed but used every bit as much.”